06 April 2009

convenient parking (*)

"In Melbourne, airport management has basically shut down any parking on anypublic roads within the airport area -- and beyond -- to stop drivers from waiting to meet incoming passengers in any place other than their high-priced car parks.Airport staff, exercising regulatory powers passed on by the state government, secretly take down the number plates of cars alleged to be stationary in these public areas with owners later getting a $110 parking fine in the mail."

Well that just about presses all of my hot buttons.a) What happens when you privatise a previously government-operated monopoly.b) What happens when you delegate the State's coercive powers to a private entity. Do you see anything wrong with being given a parking ticket without any evidence?c) What happens when you give Jobsworths a uniform and pencil.d) What happens when you have to ride roughshod over the liberty to park in a public street in order to make the 'numbers' stack up.

Being blind in both eyes, I fail to see how the defenders of privatisations can stick to their stories, it seems to me, nearly all of the infrastructure privatisations have contained as many dodgy practices (think Sydney's Cross-city tunnel) as a sideshow knock-em-down.I'm not against privatisations: no sirree, I don't want to be shot in the court of neoclassical opinion. Just do 'em straight, don't bodgy the numbers.Of course, governments desperate to avoid borrowing on their own accounts will always succomb to whatever prestidigitation some flibinite developer mesmerises them with.Note: not all of this post may be serious, up to you to guess which bits.(*) Apparently a song by a band known as Modest Mouse. I think they're after my time.

(a) It shits me that parking is such a revenue raiser. (b) I miss Cairns airport. Somethnig like $3.00 for the first hour, and downhill from there. Of course, that was at the end of 2007. But still, I have to contact my mortgage provider before turning off the M1 and heading into Brisbane's cash cow.